Uncovering Single-Molecule Photophysical Heterogeneity of Bright, Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters Dispersed in Glassy Hosts.

Recently developed all-organic emitters used in display applications achieve high brightness by harvesting triplet populations via thermally activated delayed fluorescence. The photophysical properties of these emitters therefore involve new inherent complexities and are strongly affected by interactions with their host material in the solid state. Ensemble measurements occlude the molecular details of how host-guest interactions determine fundamental properties such as the essential balance of singlet oscillator strength and triplet harvesting. Therefore, using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, we interrogate these emitters at the single-molecule level and compare their properties in two distinct glassy polymer hosts. We find that nonbonding interactions with aromatic moieties in the host appear to mediate the molecular configurations of the emitters, but also promote nonradiative quenching pathways. We also find substantial heterogeneity in the time-resolved photoluminescence of these emitters, which is dominated by static disorder in the polymer. Finally, since singlet-triplet cycling underpins the mechanism for increased brightness, we present the first room-temperature measurement of singlet-triplet equilibration dynamics in this family of emitters. Our observations present a molecular-scale interrogation of host-guest interactions in a disordered film, with implications for highly efficient organic light-emitting devices. Combining a single-molecule experimental technique with an emitter that is sensitive to triplet dynamics, yet read out via fluorescence, should also provide a complementary approach to performing fundamental studies of glassy materials over a large dynamic range of time scales.

Coupling to octahedral tilts in halide perovskite nanocrystals induces phonon-mediated attractive interactions between excitons.

Understanding the origin of electron-phonon coupling in lead halide perovskites is key to interpreting and leveraging their optical and electronic properties. Here we show that photoexcitation drives a reduction of the lead-halide-lead bond angles, a result of deformation potential coupling to low-energy optical phonons. We accomplish this by performing femtosecond-resolved, optical-pump-electron-diffraction-probe measurements to quantify the lattice reorganization occurring as a result of photoexcitation in nanocrystals of FAPbBr3. Our results indicate a stronger coupling in FAPbBr3 than CsPbBr3. We attribute the enhanced coupling in FAPbBr3 to its disordered crystal structure, which persists down to cryogenic temperatures. We find the reorganizations induced by each exciton in a multi-excitonic state constructively interfere, giving rise to a coupling strength that scales quadratically with the exciton number. This superlinear scaling induces phonon-mediated attractive interactions between excitations in lead halide perovskites.

Dynamic lattice distortions driven by surface trapping in semiconductor nanocrystals.

Nonradiative processes limit optoelectronic functionality of nanocrystals and curb their device performance. Nevertheless, the dynamic structural origins of nonradiative relaxations in such materials are not understood. Here, femtosecond electron diffraction measurements corroborated by atomistic simulations uncover transient lattice deformations accompanying radiationless electronic processes in colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals. Investigation of the excitation energy dependence in a core/shell system shows that hot carriers created by a photon energy considerably larger than the bandgap induce structural distortions at nanocrystal surfaces on few picosecond timescales associated with the localization of trapped holes. On the other hand, carriers created by a photon energy close to the bandgap of the core in the same system result in transient lattice heating that occurs on a much longer 200 picosecond timescale, dominated by an Auger heating mechanism. Elucidation of the structural deformations associated with the surface trapping of hot holes provides atomic-scale insights into the mechanisms deteriorating optoelectronic performance and a pathway towards minimizing these losses in nanocrystal devices.

Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Colloidal Gold Nanocrystals Monitored by Ultrafast Electron Diffraction and Optical Scattering Microscopy.

Metal nanocrystals exhibit important optoelectronic and photocatalytic functionalities in response to light. These dynamic energy conversion processes have been commonly studied by transient optical probes to date, but an understanding of the atomistic response following photoexcitation has remained elusive. Here, we use femtosecond resolution electron diffraction to investigate transient lattice responses in optically excited colloidal gold nanocrystals, revealing the effects of nanocrystal size and surface ligands on the electron-phonon coupling and thermal relaxation dynamics. First, we uncover a strong size effect on the electron-phonon coupling, which arises from reduced dielectric screening at the nanocrystal surfaces and prevails independent of the optical excitation mechanism (i.e., inter- and intraband). Second, we find that surface ligands act as a tuning parameter for hot carrier cooling. Particularly, gold nanocrystals with thiol-based ligands show significantly slower carrier cooling as compared to amine-based ligands under intraband optical excitation due to electronic coupling at the nanocrystal/ligand interfaces. Finally, we spatiotemporally resolve thermal transport and heat dissipation in photoexcited nanocrystal films by combining electron diffraction with stroboscopic elastic scattering microscopy. Taken together, we resolve the distinct thermal relaxation time scales ranging from 1 ps to 100 ns associated with the multiple interfaces through which heat flows at the nanoscale. Our findings provide insights into optimization of gold nanocrystals and their thin films for photocatalysis and thermoelectric applications.

Resolving and Controlling Photoinduced Ultrafast Solvation in the Solid State.

Solid-state solvation (SSS) is a solid-state analogue of solvent-solute interactions in the liquid state. Although it could enable exceptionally fine control over the energetic properties of solid-state devices, its molecular mechanisms have remained largely unexplored. We use ultrafast transient absorption and optical Kerr effect spectroscopies to independently track and correlate both the excited-state dynamics of an organic emitter and the polarization anisotropy relaxation of a small polar dopant embedded in an amorphous polystyrene matrix. The results demonstrate that the dopants are able to rotationally reorient on ultrafast time scales following light-induced changes in the electronic configuration of the emitter, minimizing the system energy. The solid-state dopant-emitter dynamics are intrinsically analogous to liquid-state solvent-solute interactions. In addition, tuning the dopant/polymer pore ratio offers control over solvation dynamics by exploiting molecular-scale confinement of the dopants by the polymer matrix. Our findings will enable refined strategies for tuning optoelectronic material properties using SSS and offer new strategies to investigate mobility and disorder in heterogeneous solid and glassy materials.

Exciton dynamics reveal aggregates with intermolecular order at hidden interfaces in solution-cast organic semiconducting films.

Large-scale organic electronics manufacturing requires solution processing. For small-molecule organic semiconductors, solution processing results in crystalline domains with high charge mobility, but the interfaces between these domains impede charge transport, degrading device performance. Although understanding these interfaces is essential to improve device performance, their intermolecular and electronic structure is unknown: they are smaller than the diffraction limit, are hidden from surface probe techniques, and their nanoscale heterogeneity is not typically resolved using X-ray methods. Here we use transient absorption microscopy to isolate a unique signature of a hidden interface in a TIPS-pentacene thin film, exposing its exciton dynamics and intermolecular structure. Surprisingly, instead of finding an abrupt grain boundary, we reveal that the interface can be composed of nanoscale crystallites interleaved by a web of interfaces that compound decreases in charge mobility. Our novel approach provides critical missing information on interface morphology necessary to correlate solution-processing methods to optimal device performance.